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#BCPoli | Prepare for a Change In Government

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On Tuesday, September 22, 2026, BC NDP Premier David Eby — contrary to the demand of his Cabinet, and members of his caucus — announced a snap election, after meeting with Lieutenant-Governor Wendy Cocchia at Government House in Victoria. That means, Election Day is this Saturday, October 24th, one week after  municipal elections across British Columbia this past Saturday, October 17th. The upcoming election this Saturday is our province’s 44th provincial general election since Confederation.

David Eby’s 2026 B.C. election campaign: 20 major promises

David Eby began his campaign for re-election as British Columbia Premier on September 22, 2026, with a central message: protect jobs, make life more affordable, strengthen public services and build a more self-reliant provincial economy amid the trade dispute with the United States.

Two early announcements were particularly significant. On September 18, before formally calling the election, Eby announced a pause in the planned expansion of the provincial sales tax (PST) to professional services and said future BC Ferries vessels would be built in British Columbia. The PST delay was estimated to save businesses, local governments and others approximately $260 million in 2026–27.

Here, then is a curated list of commitments, based on the BC NDP’s published campaign material and election coverage available as of October 21, 2026.

Taxes, affordability and the cost of living

  • 1. Pause the PST expansion. Delay the planned application of the provincial sales tax to professional services until well after the U.S. trade war ends. The initial pause was announced on September 18;
  • 2. Cut gasoline and diesel prices. Suspend 10 cents per litre of the provincial motor fuel tax, with the NDP projecting that its combined measures could reduce pump prices by as much as 30 cents per litre. Plus, cracking down on excessive fuel prices, by giving the BC Utilities Commission a stronger role in enforcing pricing rules and limiting excessive industry margins;
  • 3. Limit grocery markups on essential foods. Cap retail profit margins on products such as milk, eggs, cheese, butter and poultry. As well as combat algorithmic price discrimination. Strengthen consumer-protection and privacy laws to restrict AI-powered pricing practices that charge consumers different prices based on their personal data;
  • 4. Freeze ICBC insurance rates for another three years. Extend the existing rate freeze, bringing the proposed period of frozen rates to a decade;
  • 5. Ask higher-income earners to contribute more. Increase provincial income-tax rates for the top two tax brackets and establish a new bracket for annual income above $1 million. The NDP says the changes would affect fewer than 4% of income earners and raise approximately $1 billion annually.

Jobs, manufacturing and economic independence

  • 6. Build the next generation of BC Ferries in British Columbia. Require future vessels to be built in Canada, expand the provincial shipbuilding industry and develop a Made-in-B.C. shipbuilding strategy, as well as establish a new B.C. shipyward, working with the federal government, shipbuilders and organized labour to develop a new shipyard, with up to $250 million available provincially to leverage private and federal investment;
  • 7. Create dedicated support for forestry manufacturers. Help tariff-affected mills modernize, produce higher-value products, reduce costs and find customers outside the United States;
  • 8. Prioritize B.C. and Canadian-made products. Introduce purchasing rules for provincial ministries, Crown corporations and health authorities to favour locally and nationally produced goods and materials where viable;
  • 9. Double critical-mineral production and exports, while expanding the capacity of the Port of Prince Rupert, doubling B.C.’s critical-mineral production and exports within five years, strengthening trade links beyond the United States;
  • 10. Help small businesses survive tariffs and wildfires. Continue targeted assistance, including interest-free loans of up to $1 million for eligible businesses through the Small Business Tariff & Wildfire Relief Fund. While also helping small businesses hire young workers. Offer a $5,000 refundable tax credit to eligible small businesses hiring a young person aged 18–30 for their first full-time, 12-month job;
  • 11. Expand food processing in B.C. Make use of eligible Agricultural Land Reserve properties poorly suited to primary food production, while protecting prime farmland and creating local processing jobs.

Health care and seniors

  • 12. Triple recruitment of health-care workers from the United States. Expand efforts to attract American doctors, nurses and other health professionals to work in B.C.;
  • 13. Make shingles vaccination free for everyone aged 50 and older. Expand access to vaccination by removing the cost for eligible adults in this age group.

Housing and child care

  • 14. Turn more empty condominiums into affordable homes. Pursue measures to bring more vacant condo units into use as homes people can afford;
  • 15. Add 7,200 before- and after-school child-care spaces. Expand school-based care to help parents find convenient care for school-aged children. While Introducing a universal child-care fee cap on child-care fees, modelled on Ontario’s approach.

Transportation and public infrastructure

  • 16. Give local residents priority in BC Ferries reservations. Introduce a pilot reserving 12% of advance-booking space for local residents;
  • 17. Increase funding for public transit. Add $40 million annually to BC Transit funding to expand bus service, improve connections between communities, while delivering rapid bus transit in Metro Vancouver, making seniors’ bus passes free for low-income seniors and extending free transit passes to an estimated 350,000 eligible seniors across B.C.;
  • 18. Double provincial funding for public libraries. Permanently increase annual provincial library funding from $14 million to $28 million.

Environment, public safety and community support

  • 19. Protect more of B.C.’s land and water. Continue the commitment to protect 30% of the province’s land and water by 2030. Plus, fund climate action through new resource revenues. Dedicate a portion of provincial revenue from new oil and gas development to climate programs, beginning with a proposed $50-million investment;
  • 20. Expand involuntary care options in the Okanagan. Advance plans to increase access to involuntary mental-health and addiction treatment for people who meet the applicable criteria. Also, strengthen protections against gangs, guns and extortion. Make organized crime and extortion a campaign priority, with additional measures aimed at protecting communities and businesses.

For all of the commitments made to the citizens of British Columbia by the David Eby BC NDP government seeking re-election, in all of the polls published in the final week of the election campaign, it would seem David Eby is on his way to ignominious defeat this upcoming Saturday evening.

With each passing day the polls and the projected seat count for what now appears to be the outgoing British Columbia New Democratic government only worsens.

Below you will find the results of intensive polling conducted in all 93 riding across British Columbia. First up, focusing mainly on Metro Vancouver.

Not bad for the BC NDP: 35 NDP; 2 Greens; 12 Conservatives. Next up: the Interior.

The entire rest of the province is turning blue. There are few, if any, safe seats for David Eby’s BC NPD outside of the Metro Vancouver region, with a handful of seats on Vancouver Island, and one on the Sunshine Coast.

The only question that remains is: what will David Eby do on Election Night? Speculation is that if the election is a rout, and Mr. Eby’s party is only able to secure 29 or so seats — a possible outcome according to internal polls conducted by the Conservative Party of British Columbia — Mr. Eby will resign as leader of the BC NPD on Election Night.

VanRamblings would prefer that Mr. Eby tender his resignation in the new year.

Prior to calling the snap election, David Eby made a commitment to the members of his Cabinet and caucus: if he were to win anything less than a comfortable majority on Election Night, he would resign the leadership of the BC NDP this upcoming late winter / early spring, in order that a New Democratic Party leadership contest might be called by the party brass. Chances are the leadership convention would occur in late March, or early April, when a new leader of the party would be chosen by the party membership.

The heir apparent party membership wants: Brad West, the popular three-term Mayor of Port Coquitlam, former Executive Assistant to BC NDP Minister Mike Farnworth and a former communications and political action co-ordinator for the United Steelworkers (USW) union in B.C. There is little doubt that Ravi Kahlon and Christine Boyle would mount effective, well-run, well-financed campaigns for the party leadership, as well.

With the help of her brother-in-law Avi Lewis, the leader of the federal NDP, there is little doubt that Ms. Boyle and her backers and supporters would mount a strong campaign. Not to mention which, Dr. Cailey Lynch, the Premier’s better half, would support a run by Christine Boyle to ascend to the leadership.

Ravi Kahlon — one of the most reliable and most competent Ministers in the BC NDP government this past 9+ years — wants the leadership, feels he is owed the leadership of the party so badly that he can almost taste it.

What does a government led by Conservative Party of British Columbia “interim” leader Lorne Doerkson mean for the people of British Columbia? In a word: chaos.

Lorne Doerkson is not the leader of the Conservative Party of British Columbia, he is only the “interim” leader of the party, even if he becomes the Premier.

The constitution of B.C.’s Conservative party requires a leadership contest be held to elect their leader.

The Conservative Party’s Board of Directors have been attempting to convince elected members not to run against Mr. Doerkson, such that he would be acclaimed leader.

If you believe that is a likely scenario, we have a bridge we’d like to sell you, cheap.

You just know the whack job / far right / conspiracy theorist / freedom convoy element in the party will run one of their elected members for the leadership, and mount a campaign to have her or him become the 44th Premier of the province of British Columbia.

So, all the time that a Premier Doerkson should be attempting to put a government into place, rather than focus on the tasks at hand, he’d be traveling across the province during the first five weeks of his new administration, attempting to keep the job British Columbians elected him to.

Only in the wild west of B.C. politics could such a disastrous scenario unfold.

Over 50? You Need to Get A Shingles Shingrix Shot.

Food & Health, VanRamblings, , ,

Are You Over 50? Then, You Need to Get a Shingles Shingrix Shot SOON !!!(Republished as a public service, a VanRamblings repost of an April 22, 2018 column)

Today is Earth Day. How can you play your part?

Well, if you’re a senior, or over the age of 50, maybe by not dying prematurely from the stress and pain associated with the varicella zoster virus (shingles) or postherpetic neuralgia, so you can be around to witness, participate in and contribute to making ours a greener and more environmentally sound planet.

Are you over the age of 50, or do you have a parent, friend, spouse, relative, neighbour or colleague who is over the age of 50? If so, you or someone close to you will want to make arrangements this coming week to have the new Shingrix vaccine administered at your, or their (if it’s someone you’re advising) doctor’s office, or local pharmacy.

Those aged 50+ are susceptible to contracting shingles, probably the single most painful and sustaining malady a middle-aged or older person might experience.

Many millions of North Americans, especially those aged 50+, are susceptible to an attack of shingles, caused by the same virus that causes chickenpox.

Once the varicella zoster virus infects a person, it lies dormant for decades in nerve roots, ready to pounce when the immune system is weakened, say, by stress, medication, trauma or disease. One-third of North Americans eventually contract shingles, but the risk rises with age; by age 85 half of adults will have had at least one outbreak of shingles.

Just have a look at the following testimonials (as always, click on the preceding link) …

Comment from Francie, age 66

I had the worst pain from shingles, it was just off the charts! I was unable to sleep, eat, walk, or talk for three months.

Comment from David, age 70

On March 26, 2015, I had my first annual anniversary with the horrible and constant pain of post herpetic neuralgia (shingles). The first 9 months was a nightmare; especially at night. It’s in my armpit, and all along my shoulders; so it’s too painful to have clothing or even a sheet touching my skin. Nothing helped even as new medications appeared. My doctor tried everything and couldn’t understand why my shingles just got worse. He told me he’s had patients who suffered with shingles for 7 years. So by the time this goes, I’ll be dead; or want to be.

Once you’ve contracted shingles, there’s nothing you can do about it, except live as best you can with the pain and the prejudiced lifestyle.

Shingles: blisters, fatigue, infection, pain, itching, red rash, virus, burning

However, there is something you can do to prevent contracting shingles.

Merck’s Zostavax was first brought to the market in 2008, with an efficacy rate that reduced the risk of shingles by 51%, and a 67% preventive rate of contracting shingles a second time. Good, but not good enough.

This year, however, a new medication from Glaxo-Kline, called Shingrix, came onto the market, that studies indicate reduces the risk of contracting shingles by 97% for people in their 40s, 50s and 60s, and 91% for those in their 70s and 80s, also reducing the risk of contracting shingles again by 86%, lasting much longer than its Zostavax predecessor, which starts to lose its protection after only 3 years.

Needless to say, we had the Zostavax vaccine administered some years ago, and have now had the first of two Shingrix shots administered.

Sharon Livingstone, a gerontologist, is 'adamant' that people get the Shingrix vaccine.
Sharon Livingstone, a gerontologist, is ‘adamant’ people get the Shingrix vaccine. She herself got the Zostavax shot 10 years ago but, as can happen, she contracted shingles four years ago. She now encourages the seniors she sees to be vaccinated with the new and more effective Shingrix vaccine.

The headline in the January 1, 2018 Globe and Mail article, by health reporter André Picard, called Shingrix “a game changer” …

More than 130,000 Canadians are diagnosed with shingles each year — most of them seniors.

Anyone who has had chickenpox — which is about 90% of people born before 1995 — can develop shingles later in life, and about one-third do. The varicella zoster virus lies dormant for years, or decades, and erupts for reasons that are unclear, usually after age 50.

The pustules on the skin are bad enough, but one in eight of those afflicted with shingles suffer post-herpetic neuralgia, the medical term for lingering and sometimes debilitating nerve pain. The virus can also destroy nerves, causing blindness or deafness and, in rare cases, lead to grave infections such as meningitis and flesh-eating disease. Shingles also increases the risk of heart attack and stroke.

Yet, the misery that befalls so many is largely preventable.

Now there is a new vaccine, Shingrix, that dramatically improves protection — showing itself to be up to 97 per cent effective in large clinical studies.

“This is a game-changer,” says Dr. Iris Gorfinkel, a Toronto physician.

The blisters arising from a shingles incident tend to heal in a week or two to form crusty scabs that eventually fall off. But for about 15% of people, shingles does not end there. Instead, it leaves them with deep, searing nerve pain — a condition called postherpetic neuralgia, or PHN — that can last for months or years and has no treatment or cure. More than half the cases of PHN affect people over 60.

Make arrangements this week with your family doctor to get the new Shingrix vaccine

VanRamblings first became aware of shingles when a neighbour contracted the infection 5 years ago. For a period of one year, he couldn’t move out of his co-op apartment, couldn’t sleep (except when he passed out from exhaustion), wearing any kind of clothing was near impossible, and having anything touch his skin brought him excruciating pain. Every male in VanRamblings’ housing co-op, and all of VanRamblings’ close friends, made arrangements to have the $180, one time, Zostavax vaccine administered.

Now that Shingrix is on the market — requiring two shots, two to six months apart, at $150 apiece — all of VanRamblings’ close associates have either had the Shingrix shot, or are making arrangements to do so. Note should be made that — thanks to our new New Democrat government over in Victoria — British Columbia is the only province in Canada that allows pharmacists to administer the Shingrix vaccine (which is where we got the first of our two shots on Wednesday this past week).

You will need a prescription from a doctor, though. And, yes, as the video below suggests, there is some (ouch!) pain involved — even five days later — and a lingering malaise. But, hey, VanRamblings is still posting everyday, so it can’t really be that bad, can it (it’s not, we’re just a big baby)?

And, oh yeah, make arrangements this week to get your first Shingrix shot.